


Fluorescent Adolescents

by seokieai



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Childhood Friends, First Meetings, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, Growing Up Together, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Meet-Cute, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25204453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seokieai/pseuds/seokieai
Summary: Jae and Wonpil growing up together through the years. Learning friendship and love
Relationships: Kim Wonpil/Park Jaehyung | Jae
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Fluorescent Adolescents

**Author's Note:**

> I hate the fact I've had this idea since last year and im only writing this now because its such a cute trope I love it.  
> [proof read complete]

July 2000  
Jae and Wonpil first met in the summer in a beautiful blossom filled play park. Jae was only 7 that summer, still a shy child but he tried his best to make friends. So, when he sees 6-year-old Wonpil crash to the ground and bursting to tears Jae rushes over to help the younger.  
“are you ok?” He speaks softly while holding the boy’s arm “Where is your mom?”  
The boy on the ground in front of him just sniffs, nearly choking on his tears. Jae tugs the boys arm trying to encourage him to look up. A small trail of blood from the boy’s leg catches Jae’s eye.  
“You’re bleeding, let me help you up my mom can help you” Jae squeezes the boy’s hand and he finally looks up, big brown doe eyes filled with tears staring up at him. Jae sucks in a breath and wraps an arm around the boys back.  
“I help you over to my mom she can give you a band aid” The boy finally stood up with support from Jae’s arm. The two boys hobble across the play park to where Jae’s mom is sat on a bench.  
“Oh, sweetheart what happened?” Jae’s mom reached into her bag to pull out a wipe and band aid  
“I saw him fall mommy, he hurt his knee” Jae pointed down at the small blood streak travelling down his leg.  
“sit him down here” Jae shuffled towards the bench and let the boy twist around to sit next to Jae’s mom. “So, what’s your name sweetie” She asked as she wiped the anti bac across the cut on the boys leg.  
“W-Wonpil” He said quietly hissing at the sting  
“Ok Wonpil, when I’m done take me to your mommy please” She placed the plaster smoothly over the cut  
“okay…” 

The following week Jae was at the park again, standing at the top of the slide pretending to be the king of his own castle when he spotted the boy from last week, Wonpil, climbing the stairs to the slide.  
“Wonpil!” Jae shouted down at him, Wonpil looked up quickly and smiled seeing Jae standing at the top.  
“Hi” He said softly climbing to the top, Jae reached out his hand for wonpil to take to help him up the final step.  
“Welcome to my kingdom!” Jae said proudly, Wonpil grinned back at him and glanced around at the climbing frame and slide.  
“Are you the king?” He asked still smiling. Jae nodded and walked over to the plastic mounted telescope.  
“Of course I am, come and look at the kingdom” Jae spoke with a fake regal voice. He was slightly too tall to look through the telescope so his back was arched and knees bent. Wonpil however reached it perfectly with only a slight bend.  
“What a beautiful kingdom you have” Wonpil giggled and pulled away from the telescope. Jae felt his heart beating in his chest but coughed gently and followed Wonpil over to the slide. 

For the next few weeks, the two boys would meet at the park and rule over their kingdom having pretend sword fights, but then back to school season hit.

September 2000  
Jae sat in his class; it was during reading time but Jae could never really concentrate during those 10 minutes. He stayed staring out the window watching time pass until a car pulled up and a woman got out the car ushering her son out of the passenger seat.  
“Wonpil?” Jae mumbled.  
“Jae! Please get back to reading.” His teachers voice rang across the room and all his classmates turned to look at him.  
“Yes, Sorry.” He replied looking down at his book not actually processing any of the words in front of him. Jae smiled to himself.  
‘Wonpil is here’ he thought. Maybe school lunch times will be less lonely now.

Wonpil sat at a bench with his packed lunch in front of him, he glanced around the playground watching friends playing games and some girls doing kart wheels along the grassy strip connected to the playground. He sighed and picked up a few of his grapes and popped them into his mouth. A boy and a girl lingered around his table approaching slowly.  
“Hello Wonpil.” The girl spoke first. “we’re in the same class in saw you this morning”  
“Oh, hello?” He replied quietly looking down at his hands on the table. The boy sat down opposite him on the picnic bench.  
“Why did you change schools?” The spoke, smiling at Wonpil.  
“Oh uh, well I- “  
“Wonpil!” A loud voice caught his attention he swung his head around to see Jae walking towards him. Wonpil shot out of his seat and over to Jae pulling him into a hug and buried his head into Jae’s chest.  
“Jae? Please help, they’re making me nervous” Jae frowned and ruffled Wonpils hair.  
“Ha-ha, what are you two? Gay?” The boy at the table asked making the girl beside him and a few other kids laugh and stare at Wonpil who was pretty much glued to Jae’s side.  
“Wonpil, let go for a second” Jae tapped the boys’ arms and he pulled away slowly. Jae walked over to the picnic table picking up Wonpil’s lunch box.  
“Grow up” Jae spat at the boy. Clearly, he was in Wonpil’s year which meant naturally Jae was a little bit scarier because he was older. Jae walked back to Wonpil taking the youngers hand and pulling him over to another table.  
“Jae?” Wonpil’s voice was quiet and timid.  
“Yeah?”  
“What does gay mean?” Wonpil asked offering a grape to Jae from across the table.  
“Oh! You don’t know?” Wonpil shook his head “It means a boy who wants to kiss other boys instead of girls. You know like, instead of a princess finding prince charming, its like a king finding his prince charming” Jae scratched the side of his head watching Wonpil think and process the analogy.  
“Hmm… Jae you’re a king. You rule the kingdom in the park”  
“Yeah I’m the king of that place” Jae laughed taking another piece of fruit Wonpil held out towards him.  
“Then, I can be the prince” Wonpil grinned brightly and Jae’s cheeks flushed while his heart thrummed against his chest. He doesn’t know why it keeps doing that. It hurts.  
“But Wonpil,”  
“Hmm?”  
“Uh, never mind” Jae finished shuffling in his seat. “Actually, my birthday is next week and my mom is taking me to the beach, I can ask if you can come too!” Wonpil smiled widely and nodded his head.  
“I’ll ask my mom as well! I hope I can go” The youngers grin widened and Jae nearly melted. “What would you want for your birthday?” Wonpil asked zipping up his lunch bag  
“Oh no, don’t get me a present its ok.” Jae smiled back. The bell for class rang through the playground and they both rose from the bench.  
“I’m still going to get you one” Wonpil grinned at Jae and walked away towards his class.  
Jae’s cheeks were hot and he let out a breath he doesn’t remember holding. This was weird, this had never happened to him before and he would one hundred percent have to google why he felt like this. In all honesty he thought he was seriously ill.  
When Jae got home that day, he ate dinner with his mom and sat in the family lounge alone at the computer with google open. He hummed quietly and tapped on the keyboard.  
‘why does my heart hurt when my friend smiles at me?’ he typed and held his breath when pressing the search button. The slow internet pinwheeling in the centre of the screen until an article popped up from a random forum.  
‘Am I gay? My heart always beats fast when my male friend is around’ Jae gasped and shut off the computer sitting back in the wheelie chair.  
“I am not gay.” He whispered and stared at his reflection in the blank screen of the computer. He stood up and walked to the kitchen where his mom stood doing the dishes.  
“mommy?” He asked.  
“yes baby?”  
“can Wonpil come with us to the beach for my birthday?” Jae fiddled with his thumbs looking up at his mom.  
“of course he can, but just him. I don’t want to drop off 5 children after driving to and from the beach”  
“it’s just Wonpil. Thank you.” Jae smiled and walked away to go up to his room where he would hide for the night thinking about what was on the computer screen downstairs.

Wonpil sat next to Jae on the sandy beach licking at his ice cream. Jae smiled looking at the mess all over his face, Wonpil turned to look at Jae and laughed at him loudly.  
“What!?” Jae groaned pulling his cone away from his mouth  
“You have ice cream all over your face”  
“Well, so do you!” Jae pointed back at Wonpil.  
“Boys!” Jae’s mom called towards them “Let me take a picture of you two” She smiled and pulled the old digital camera from her bag. The boys turned to face her fully, the blue sea crashing behind them. Jae wrapped his arm over Wonpil’s shoulder while Wonpil grinned his signature toothy grin except one gap where his tooth had fallen out that week at school.  
“My goodness look at the mess of you two” Wonpil’s mum tutted and poured a small amount of water onto two tissues and handed them to the boys to wipe their mouths.  
“Yes they’re mucky puppies” Jae’s mom laughed along “But it’s a cute picture” The two moms swooned over the picture on the small screen. They took a lot of pictures that day.  
One in front of the sand kingdom Jae and Wonpil built, one of the boys running towards the sea. One of them splashing each other and then one of them sleeping on each other’s heads and shoulders in the back seat of Jae’s mom’s car.  
“Who knew they would end up being best friends likes this.” Wonpils mum spoke first through the quietness of the car, the radio played on the lowest volume, only the bass was really audible  
“Yeah, I mean its amazing they managed to stay friends just from a chance meeting at a play park” the two women chuckled and glanced at the boys in the rear view mirror.  
When Wonpil and his mom jumped out of the car Wonpil ran back out of the front door with a box and a card in his hands.  
“Happy birthday Jae!” Wonpil smiled and ran back inside waving before closing the front door.  
Jae looked down at the blue patterned wrapping paper and ripped down the edge of the box. He tore off the paper to see a Gameboy cartilage with ‘POKEMON’ printed on the plastic case. Jae gasped and smiled widely at the gift.  
“mom, look! Wonpil got me Pokémon!” Jae waved the game around and smiled in glee. Underneath that he noticed and small Slowking plushie attached to a keyring. Jae hummed and smiled happily. Finally moving onto the card.  
‘To Jae,  
Happy birthday I hope you had a very very good day and got lots of presents. You are my best friend I love you forever! :)  
Lots of love from wonpil :)’  
Jae hugged and cards and presents to his chest and thanked the lord he had such an amazing best friend.  
“Jae” His moms voiced shocked him in the silence of the car. “We need to talk about what I found on the computer the other day” Jae gulped and dropped his head to stare at the converse on his small feet.  
“I’m sorry mommy” "Jae, I'm not disapointed"

March 2009  
“Hey Princey” Jae ruffled Wonpils hair  
“Hey! Don’t call me that- let go of my hair” Wonpil scolded and watched Jae sit himself down at the desk in front of him “What are you doing here?”  
“This is my new form room, I heard they’re trying to make people from different grades become friends” Jae said and slammed his book on the table.  
“Jaehyung, do you think you could enter my classroom a little quitter” The teacher asked while writing the date on the chalkboard  
“Oh, sorry!” Jae replied while Wonpil chuckled at him being told off.  
“If you two sitting together is going to disrupt form time, I will have you moved to separate forms” The teacher sighed turned around to look them  
“Sorry.” They said in sync and sunk into their chairs.  
“Are you still coming over later? my sister and mom are out at my grandmas and my dad’s out of town so we can play Mario kart for as long as we need to” Wonpil leant forward and whispered in Jae’s ear.  
“Yeah I’ll be there and my mom said she’ll give me money for takeaway” Jae smiled and turned back to his text book.  
Jae stood at the school gate with one leg on the ground and the other on his bike pedal, the guitar case on his back making his shoulders ache. He was waiting for Wonpil to come down from the music room so they could cycle home together. Jae pulled out his phone, fingers flicking around trying to decide what to do. Jae opened his browser seeing all the tabs filled with ‘am I gay?’, ‘gay test’ ‘how to tell if you are gay’ ‘how to tell if your friend is gay’. He sighed, slightly ashamed of himself for that last search and closed all the open tabs. The whole am I gay question had lingered with him since he was eight! Eight fucking years old, he is seventeen now. He thought he would’ve had it all figured out by now. He dated a girl for a month when he was 16 but he didn’t feel anything being with her. He felt so bad when he broke up with her, but he couldn’t pretend to love someone who he didn’t. Wonpil didn’t like her either honestly, he kept it to himself but she didn’t seem right for Jae, she was loud and outgoing and Wonpil didn’t think she complimented Jae enough to be anywhere near compatible.  
“Jae! Sorry I had to talk to the teacher!” Wonpil ran down the front steps to unlock his bike from the bike rack “right, lets go”  
Wonpil’s smile was wide and his cheeks were flushed from the run down from the top floor of the school building, his hair was messy and curling at the ends from the sweat collecting on his forehead. Jae flushed staring at him struggle to unlock his bike chain. Jae looked down at his phone.  
‘am I in love with my best friend?’  
“Right! I’m ready to go” Wonpil pulled up next to him waiting for Jae to hurriedly stuff his phone into his pocket and start peddling.  
The two played countless games of Mario kart until their food had arrived.  
“It’s the fried chicken!” Jae heard Wonpil shout from the hallway. Jae sat on the living room floor rubbing his eyes. He really wants to tell Wonpil about being confused about his sexuality, he knew Wonpil was too kind to ever not want to be his friend because he is possibly gay, but still. He thought maybe he should figure it out first before telling Wonpil  
“Here you go!” Wonpil placed Jae’s box of chicken in front of him along with a glass of cola. Jae smiled and watched Wonpil plop back down next to him balancing his box of chicken in one hand and drink in the other. Wonpil clicks on his mp3 player to shuffle some music while they ate their dinner.  
“Wonpil?” Jae askes carefully  
“Yeah, what’s up? More cola?” Wonpil asked gesturing towards Jae’s cup. He had drunk it all in nervousness without even fully realising.  
“oh, no, its fine. I just want to talk about something”  
“Okay” Wonpil smiled that angelic smile he always uses, even if Jae isn’t gay. He knows one thing for sure. He is in love with his best friend.

“I don’t really know how to start… Have you ever…” His voice trailed off  
“Have I ever what? Jae, you seem nervous are you ok? Do you need to go home” Wonpils eyes filled with worry and Jae couldn’t help but stare into them. Something in him just snapped.  
“Have you ever questioned your sexuality like if you’re gay, straight, bi, whatever, because I’ve been thinking about it for years and I really don’t know what I am but I think I’m gay but I’m still thinking about it” Jae spoke so quick that he was out of breath by the time he finished speaking. Wonpil stared into Jae’s eyes with furrowed eyebrows. Wonpil stood up sighing and left the room walking down the hallway. Jae’s ears were ringing, he cupped his face feeling tears he didn’t notice had fallen. Wonpil came back into the room with a box of tissues. He crouched down in front of Jae pulling a tissue out of the box. Wonpil gripped Jae’s wrists and pulled them carefully away from his face.  
“Hey, Jae it’s ok. Everything is ok. I promise.” Wonpil spoke carefully, cupping Jae’s face and dabbing away his tears.  
“In all honesty… yes I have thought about it. I’m probably gay, I mean I’ve been thinking about for maybe 3 years now. There’s always been something there that made me think I was gay or maybe I just wasn’t attracted to women the same way other people were. So, when I actually sat down and thought about it. I kinda had a realisation.” Wonpil smiled and pulled Jae into a warm hug “It’s ok to not be sure. In fact, you really don’t need to even label yourself. Hey, God I feel like I’m going to crumble seeing you cry” Wonpil hugged him in closer squeezing lightly.  
“Thank you Pil, really.” Jae sighed and pulled back a bit to wipe his eyes “Thank you for everything, I love you” Jae sniffed and cleared his throat. Wonpil grinned back down at him  
“Fuck. It’s that fucking smile.” Jae laughed breathily. Wonpil cocked his head questioningly “Wonpil, it’s just that. When I see that smile my heart just speeds up, it scared me at first, I thought I was going to fucking die seeing that beautiful smile” Jae sucked in another breath, heart going a thousand miles a minute. “Fuck it.” Jae said reaching forward and cupping Wonpil’s face.  
“Jae I- “Wonpil was cut off by Jae leaning in and pushing their lips together. At first neither of them moved, Wonpil sighed against Jae’s lips and pushed his fingers into his hair encouraging Jae to move his lips. They were crouched on Wonpil’s living room floor kissing, Jae felt like he was ascending to another universe, everything seemed too perfect to be real.  
Wonpil pulled away first, out of breath.  
“Jae…” Wonpil sighed and pushed his way to nuzzle against Jae’s chest “I fucking love you”


End file.
